Disgusting people though.

...that's exactly the point of a great documentary....to break our preconceived "notions" of what we think we know ! Why are these people "disgusting" and not some wallstreet bankster who uses their product , or all the trash coke, pot and methheads all over the USA who support the narco organizations thru direct contributions ? But an even better question is...why are they disgusting, when our own government is the biggest drug smuggler on the planet , and are most likely the main protagonist in this war ?

Maybe you're jumping to a preconceived idea , planted by a controlled media. It's no coincidence that this romanticizing the narco culture comes not so much from within Mexico, but from the USA. If you watch the doc you see that Mexicans can't understand idolizing the perpetrators of this insanity. That's the structure of the film. It's divided , also showing unbelievably intimate scenes of a homicide investigator in Juarez.

This unbelievable access that Schwartz achieved with both protagonists is the films' genius. At the end of the film, it's hard not to ask, why, if in Mexico these narco songs which glorify the violence are banned, in the USA they are making millions ?

Ethnocentricity ? The US government runs and arms the mexican cartels. The cia smuggled their guns into mexico and then allowed c140's full of coke to land in secret nevada bases. Nothing new. Afghanistan's opium crop multiplied by 1000% after the US invaded. Iran/Contra....air america. Read Gary Webbs' dark Alliance. The US trained the zetas in their USA assassin escuela of las americas . The US society supports their business model, otherwise there wouldn't be any business. Typical gringo attitude that it's everyone elses fault but their own, when just the opposite is true ! If you want to know the origin of the disease....look out your front door !

Yes...as they arrest the upper bosses, the cartels splinter and the lower levels look for incomes to substitute for the drugs. But the inescapable truth is ...the market and the politics comes from the USA. The only people I know who use drugs in mexico are gringos. I'm sure there are some mexicans but a small minority.

I have experienced telephone extortion and it wasn't pretty esp. when I told them where their mothers should go. I've lived in Mexico for 25 years and know of, but don't know a single person who's been kidnapped, and they were mexican. Not a single american has been kidnapped where I live, and there's hundreds of american tourist every day. I know of a few americans who've been whacked however. Most were into young boys and were looking for a problem. We get alot of those types of tourists as well ! I imagine the boys uncles', or fathers, or big brothers didn't take to their new friends. And the dumb gringos that fill the cantinas thinking they know the learning curve. They took one of those and filled him with 45 caliber holes when he was flirting with the wrong woman. It's still alot safer than chicago though !

@BurnetRhoades

...I don't think watching the doc will help you Burnet, since you have the typical american attitude of "it's always someone elses fault". Or at least that's what they drone on Fox.

And now in Ukraine...those upstart Russians again. But you don't hear anything in the american news about us backing the nazi rebels....just like syria....and libya ...and iraq...and afghanistan.

Yep...here come the americans to save the day ! But speaking of "disgusting" people. Last week I watched "Nebraska". Man...now those are disgusting people. Not one sympathetic character in the whole friggin' film. I'd guess that was exactly the filmmakers point. To portray a culture in decline.